An Assessment Report

Submitted by Niroj Rijal J11-PGD-08 Assessment tittle Communication in Multinational Company Word Count 2061 Submitted to School of Business Administration (SBA, London) 3rd November

Table of Content
Introduction Definition Communication Process Communication Channel Communication in a multinational company Culture differences in Communication Bridging cultural differences Gender differences in Communication Bridge gender difference Conclusion References 3 3 3 4 4 5 5 5 6 6 7

Introduction
Communication is the nervous system of an organization. It keeps the members of the organization informed about the internal and external happenings relevant to the organization. It co-ordinates the efforts of the members towards achieving organizational objectives. (Adair, 2009). It is the process of influencing the action of a person or a group. It is a process of meaningful interaction among human beings to initiate, execute, accomplish, or prevent certain actions. Communication is, thus, the life blood of an organization. Without communication, an organization is lifeless and its very existence is in danger. Management of an organization is effective only when its communication machinery is e f f e c t i v e . (Adair, 2009). T h e v e r y e x i s t e n c e o f m a n a g e m e n t d e p e n d s u p o n a n e f f e c t i v e m a c h i n e r y o f communication. Effective communication machinery is important because it communicates, and helps in implementing, the policies and objectives of the organization on the one hand and also helps in understanding the nature and behavior of the people at work (Adair, 2009).

Definition
The term communication has been derived from the Latin word Communicare which mean common. Thus, it may be interpreted as an interchange of thought or information to bring about understanding and confidence for good industrial relations. It brings about unity of purpose, interest, and efforts in an organization. Different author defines communication in different way but the very soul of the communication is the same. Allen louis defines communication as t h e s u m o f a l l t h i n g s , o n e p e r s o n d o e s w h e n h e w a n t s t o c r e a t e understanding in the minds of another, it involves a systematic and continuous process of telling, listening and understanding. (Rodriques, 2000). Keith Davis defines communication as the process of passing information and understanding from one person to another, it is essentially a bridge of meaning between people. By using the bridge of meaning a person can safely cross the river of misunderstanding. The analysis of the above definitions implies that the communication is defines as a process (Rodriques, 2000).

Communication process
Communication, being a process, must have some elements to complete the process. Various elements of communication have been presented in different models of communication. These are sender, message, encoding, channel, receiver, decoding, and feedback (Rodriques, 2000). Firstly, Sender of the message is the person who intends to make contact with the objective of passing the message to other persons. In organizational context, sender may be a superior, a subordinate, a peer, or any other person. The organizational position of the sender determines the direction of flow of communication in an organization. Secondly Message, is the subject-matter of the communication which is intended to be passed to the receiver from the sender. The message may be in the form of ideas, opinions, feelings, views, suggestions, orders, etc. Thirdly Encoding, the subject-matter of communication is abstract and intangible; its transmission requires the use of certain symbols such as words, pictures, gestures, etc. The process of converting the message into communication symbols is known as encoding. Fourthly Channel, message encoded into symbols is transmitted by the sender through a channel like written form, personal contact, phone call, etc., depending on the situation of two parties, sender and receiver. Fifthly Receiver is the person to whom the symbols are transmitted. Like sender, he maybe a superior, subordinate, peer, or any other person in the organization. Lastly 3

Feedback is necessary to ensure that the receiver has received the message and understood it in the same sense as the sender intended. Further, it acts as an energizing factor, thereby changing the course of action in the communication (Rodriques, 2000). There are factor such as Noise which affect the affect communication process. Noise is the causative factor for the message being miscommunicated or misunderstood due to the problem either in the medium chosen or encoding or decoding or in some stages of the process. In this instance, the message was not properly constructed and hence the secretary did not understand it as intended by the sender. The noise in communication is analogous to the external noise generated by cable or transmission equipment of land line telecommunication while the subscribers talk on land line phones and hence they don't listen or understand the words exchanged. (Rodriques, 2000). The two most important stage of the process are encoding and decoding. Encoding is translation or conversion of the idea or intention or message into words or signals so that receiver would reconvert the same as intended by the sender. Decoding is what the receiver does to reconvert the received words or signals into the idea or intention or message as originally intended by the sender. The problems associated with encoding or decoding are due to the fact that words or signals have multiple meanings and thus there is a possibility of either use of wrong words or wrong signals or understanding them in a way different from what is originally intended (Meesala, 2007).

Communication Channel
The most important aspect of any communication is information, which needs to be transferred and translated in an understandable manner. In a multinational organization there are ranges of channel used to transfer information in a verbal and nonverbal way. Verbal communication refers to those communication that are expressed using words whereas nonverbal communication are communication made through gestures, body language, smiles etc. In a multinational company information is transmitted using range of verbal and nonverbal communication. Public speech, email, letters, messages on notice board, broadcast, podcast, meetings, hoarding telephonic conversation etc are all used as a verbal medium of communication whereas hug, raised eyebrows, attitude, smiles, hand signal are known as nonverbal communication. Depending on the message the medium must be used for example if a message is restricted to few member of a small department in an organization it is better to use email or group meeting to convey the message. (Meesala, 2007).

Communication in a multinational company

Internationalization and globalization has been proceeding very quickly and it has been becoming to a greater extend a characteristic feature of the present multinational companies (MNC). MNC position or move very quickly to any territory which they find most suitable for decreasing their cost and increasing their value. It is not just economic, political and technical aspects which affect the functioning of an MNC, there are cultural and gender aspect which MNC needs to manage. These are termed as intercultural management. Companies more and more get into touch with members of various national cultures. This includes their employees, business partners and customers. The work of managers is more and more influenced by development of global economics and that is why the need to manage problems of controlling and communication in the multicultural environment of multinational companies is of prominent interest now.

Culture differences in Communication

A multinational company with is subsidiaries in western, Asian and Latin American countries are exposed to cross-cultural issues. A business need to respect cultural differences in order to tap business opportunities. In a cross cultural business communication language plays a vital role and its also govern a transaction. English is certainly a trade language which is understood and communicated across the world. It is widely believed that western style of doing business is becoming a worldwide standard along with the use an English language. (Griffith, 2002). It is said that language can communicate words but cannot make other party understand the idea. Words are used differently and understood different by each cultural which therefore hurdles in the way of communication. It is said that Matsushita in its acquisition of MCA and Sony in its acquisition of Columcia pictures was caused due to miscommunication between American and Japanese manager (Farhi, 1995 & Nakamoto). While negotiating in western communication Yes does not always mean yes. Understanding the non-verbal behaviour is most important. Certain hand movement, Facial expression and a moment of silence are likely to present an indirect communication to the other party. Failure to understand such communication can lead to losses and spoil relationship. A meeting in a one culture are occasions where participant meet each other to discuss the pro and cons of a particular situation and taking management decision. In contrast to some other countries where meet takes place to announce and explain a decision or change in policy or procedure.

Bridging cultural differences

Advancement in Information technology has wide facilitated business communication through telephonic, video conferencing, emailing etc. Multinational can use range of option to communicate verbally and non-verbally. When communicating verbally employees must ensure precise and standard words are used to ensure proper communication. Words which have double meaning or can lead to miscommunication should be avoided. It is difficult to understand the nonverbal aspect of the communication across different cultural. Companys nowadays maintains a separate team such as global communicating team which ensure effective communication arcos all its company

Gender differences in Communication

Different genders have different styles and strength when tacking a particular situation. Men and Women often use different process for decision making. In an organization, women tends to have more of a relationship oriented attitude and tends to accomplish task through relationship building making things comfortable at work when asking someone to do a task. Men are task oriented and build relationship if they are in a task. When communicating verbally or nonverbally there are some difference in attitude among men and women. A non-verbal behaviour such as a nod of a head done by woman shows that they are listening whereas man finishes a conversation with a nod which represents agreement. When a woman speaks to a man, he would have a neutral body language and will be less responsive with facial expression to ensure he listens carefully; women will term such a man unresponsive and boring. A woman often have a direct eye contact when conversing which many men can take as a challenge to their position or power (Lieberman, 2007). When communicating verbally in a meeting, Men tend to take more time whereas women ensure there is equality in the room. Despite stereotypes to the contrary studies have shown that men talk more than women. Men interrupt women and talk over them much more that women interrupt men. All of 5

this can lead to the type of miscommunication based on assumptions of why member of the other sex are using certain verbal and non-verbal behaviours. These miscommunications can result in team breakdown, people not listening to each other and loss of good ideas.

Bridge gender difference

In a globalized world there are so many differences among same sex, therefore it is difficult to standardize certain communication channel and process based on gender, as not everyone fits into generalization. There are cultural norms based on research that showed that a large majority of men and women display some of these characteristics. Some of these behaviours are based on acculturation and learning and some of them are based on how our brains work. These differences can be bridged by following steps (Lieberman, 2007). Awareness Both the genders need to be aware of each other style of communication both verbal and non-verbal in order to avoid miscommunication (Lieberman, 2007). Stereotype strength- Certain gender have certain communication strength in either of verbal or nonverbal. Identifying these stereotypes and recognizing their communication strength can lead to effective communication (Lieberman, 2007). Acknowledgment Men must ensure they dont dominate the meeting and create enough space for everyone. Also appropriate acknowledgment must be made by men through body gesture which indicate their active listening to the opinion made by other participant of the meeting (Lieberman, 2007). A multinational company, both male and female style of communication are needed to deal with diversity and complexity of business transaction. There are differences in each member of the society and it is recommended to recognise difference and similarity, as these identification lead to open discussion and can achieve greater goals together.

Conclusion
Effective communication between international business partners and employees are the extremely vital for a company that operates on a global scale. Understanding cultural and gender difference are extremely necessary for developing and maintaining international relationship. Without effective inter-organization communication a company cannot develop long term effectiveness (Griffith, 2002).Steps must be taken by the company to ensure managers communicating orders internationally is competent or made competent to translate communication in a manner which is understood by the other part. Effective channel must be agreed by both the parties which are facilitating smooth functioning of the business transaction.

References
Adair, J (2009). Effective Communication: The Most Important Management Skill of All. 2nd ed. London: Pan Macmillan Ltd. Farhi P (1995.) MCA, Sony: Why mergers didnt work. Washington Post,p . D1 Griffith, D A. (2002). The Role of communication competencies in international business relationship development.. Journal of World Business. 1 (3), p1-p15. Lieberman S . (2007). Gender Communication Differences and Strategies. Available: http://superperformance.com/gendercommunication.html. Last accessed 19 Oct 2011. Meesala A. (2007). Understanding the Communication Process - The Key to Organisational Success. Available: http://ezinearticles.com/?Understanding-the-Communication-Process---The-Key-toOrganisational-Success&id=876670. Last accessed 19 Oct 2011. Nakamoto M (2000). When culture masks communication. Financial Times, p 15. Rodriques, M V (2000). Perspectives of Communication and Communicative Competence. New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company.